Molly fish are sick!

Question
My boyfriend and I set up a fish tank about a month ago. It's a 10 gallon tank and we have 3 molly fish: 1 black, 1 dalmatian, and 1 creamsicle (orange one, but I think we were told they're called creamsicles). The creamsicle and dalmatian both got white spots today, which after looking up on this site I've found out they have ick. We are going to the pet store first thing tomorrow morning to get everything to treat them since we didn't notice it tonight until after everything was closed. I'm hoping they'll be ok and we'll be able to treat them for that, but the dalmatian has also starting swimming vertically with his head towards the bottom... my mom told me that means he's going to die, but I'm hoping this isn't true... what could be the cause of this, and how do we fix it?

Answer
Hi Amy;

Your tank is very new and may still be in the break-in period. The break-in is very stressful on fish and could be the reason for the one swimming awkwardly as well as why your fish developed ick. It attacks when fish are stressed. Change 25% of your tank water to help lower any toxins that may be present as well as reducing the number of ick parasites in the water. When you get the ick remedy, get some aquarium salt as well. It helps the fish feel better and weakens the ick parasites. Here is a link to my page about new tanks to learn more about it;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

I hope they feel better soon...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins